“The only people who can change the world are people who want to. And not everybody does.”

― Hugh MacLeod

Finding Your People

This past week has been interesting…

Last Wednesday afternoon, a guy named Carlos walked up and introduced himself during my train ride from the Portland airport. He’s a Spaniard living in Germany who took a solo two-week trip to be there. He also happened to be a long-time LYL member and clearly knows how to put the 3-second rule to work.

On Friday morning, I did yoga with 807 folks in the center of Portland as we broke the world record for longest human yoga chain by more than 100 people.

That afternoon, I met up with 200 of you at our LYL Local beer tasting. I was awestruck as I saw so many of our LYL and Connect With Anyone family embrace each other as they would a best friend. It was proof of the kind of community I’ve always dreamed of for all of us (see above).

On Saturday morning, Jon Giganti, one of LYL’s first readers, founding CWA member and my very first coaching client, took the stage on Saturday to share how he helped a paraplegic kid get his life back and become a speaker and published author. For lunch, I joined 18 LYL Local hosts from around the world to learn how they’re building their in-person communities.

On Sunday, Linda, our LYL Local host and dance contest winner from Kansas City, walked on stage to accept a Scholarship for Real Life that she won for the work she’s doing to teach urban children creativity and entrepreneurship through MINDDRIVE.

Then at about 4:45pm, somehow my wife Chelsea took the main stage to perform her own rap to 3,000 people, in an attempt to win a rather unconventional type of race (she rocked it!).

By midnight that night, I was dancing Bollywood style while wearing a charcoal cape that read World Domination Summit across the back. I didn’t take it off until I finished talking big ideas (and small ones) with close friends at around 4 am.

Why the cape? Because these were my people. I felt at home. We all did.

The question of the weekend was simple…

How do we live a remarkable life in a conventional world?

This was the gathering that Chris Guillebeau thought up four years ago – one that started as a little blog with no followers a few years before that.

When I attended the first event, I knew two people. Live Your Legend didn’t exist.

You can get it in your local community – check Meetup or LYL Local for starters.

And if I were you, I’d get it everywhere.

It starts with one other person who believes what you believe. If you’re looking, they’re probably closer than you realized, especially if you’re a part of our movement at Live Your Legend.

Because when you find them, you get permission to…

Take Imperfect Action

This theme made for perfectly delivered advice as Jadah Sellner gave one of the opening keynotes and performed her life story – spoken word poetry style. These three words tied the weekend together – they tied everyone together.

Because who’s ever really ready anyway? You can always talk yourself out of it. And if you wait, you will. But these people were different…

Dee had a heart attack at 40, pressed reset and sold all her stuff to build and live in an 84-square foot house in the woods.

Jadah went from directionless and deeply in debt to building a thriving business and community around green smoothies.

A.J. turned himself into a human guinea pig and is building the world’s biggest family tree.

Elise took a love for crafting and experimentation and turned it into her living, all based on becoming an expert at “the attempt”.

John rebelled against the 1971 San Francisco oil spill by giving up motorized vehicles and taking a vow of silence for 17 years.

Tyler put on The Great Namaste and brought 808 people together to crush the previous record…

These standouts don’t even scratch the surface. Every attendee I spoke with had only a hint of a story or plan before the route began.

Because as it turns out, imperfect is the only action there is.

We just fool ourselves into thinking we’ll be more prepared later – more experienced, more educated, more ready. We do it out of fear, uncertainty, the haunting idea that we might be setting out on the wrong path. But if it’s a path you believe in today, how could wrong exist? It only becomes wrong if you don’t do anything to explore it.

The right people make this type of action, the only type, feel okay.

Find your people, take imperfect action.

It’s pretty simple.

But a WDS recap wouldn’t be complete without a few of my favorite lessons and ideas from OUR people:

To kick it off, here’s an image Chelsea created during our coffee shop writing session this morning…

Beware of The Horizon Effect: dreams and expectations grow with our experiences. Turn around and look at how far you’ve come.

Giving up our small choice to respond to what happens piles up into big choices over time.

Creating loyal customers is mostly about choosing the right customers.

All great businesses start with service and serving others.

Different Visions, Identical Values

CWA alumni and friend Mike Goncalves put it perfectly – among the thousands of attendees from more than 30 countries, many of us came with different visions, but we all shared the same values. And that makes for the perfect, magical environment for acting before you’re ready.

That’s why I show up each year. And that’s why I do all I can to create that daily environment for myself and all of you. The interesting thing is that no one person can create a community of world-changers. It only becomes that when each of us shows up. You’re as big a part of that as I am or anyone else.

Thank you for that.

Together, we all make the imperfect action not only possible, but encouraged. By showing up the way you do, you allow the rest of us to live our own unedited life. And that’s the ultimate gift.

We’ll end with one from Chris, delivered just before he called four unsuspecting people out of the audience to present them with introductions, gear, gifts and plane tickets – all custom-chosen to kick-start each of their dreams…

“Just because you can’t help everyone doesn’t mean you shouldn’t help someone. It is our capability and responsibility to help people along in pursuing their dream.”

– Chris Guillebeau

We have our people. They’re right here. And I bet you have at least an idea of how you could make a difference. That leaves only one thing.

Act imperfectly.

– Scott

P.S. Next week we’ll be holding a scholarship contest for lifetime access to our Connect With Anyone course and community, which opens again in a couple weeks. I hope it helps you find your people and pursue what matters. Keep an eye out!

In the comments, tell us your favorite takeaway from WDS. If you weren’t there, just share a lesson you try to live by.

41 Comments

Emily

That’s so awesome! I’d love to make it to one of these events sometime. The part about how you’ll never act if you wait until you’re ready really stuck with me. It’s what I needed to hear right now. Thanks again, Scott!

Scott

Thank you for the recap Scott!! And nice artwork by Chelsea! I was just going over my notes as well yesterday, and I am amazed by the positivity and depth of the recommendations and encouragements that I heard and received over the course of the weekend at WDS. The LYL pre-party on Friday was a huge highlight, as there I really felt like I was with my people. It was so awesome! We are definitely going back next year.

What an awesome, perfect summary of the entire WDS weekend, good stuff here Scott. Thanks for the shout out as well, you’re awesome man! It was an absolute pleasure getting to meet you. The energy at your LYL Local beer tasting event was unreal. Seeing the faces and hearing the stories of this amazing community and what each person is up to, working on, and creating was incredible. I am so grateful and feel so fortunate to be part of it all. There were many takeaways for me from WDS but if there was one I heard often and resonated with me was that whatever it is we’re thinking of doing or wanting to do, just do it…just start! Elise Blaha Cripe expressed it by saying, “if we waited until we knew everything, we’d never do anything.” John Francis stated it by saying, “head in the path of your passions and the plan will reveal itself.” And both you and Jadah Sellner state it by saying, “take imperfect action”. The message is clear, show up, take action, and make a difference. Thanks again Scott… Cheers!

Scott

We had so much fun with both of you Mike. I had a feeling we would from all that time on the CWA coaching calls. I love seeing you putting this stuff to work big time. The world needs it. Sorry to have missed that workout on Sun morning. Those nights were a tad too long! I’m sure we’ll get another chance.

Scott

Scott,
It was a thrill of a lifetime and I was deeply humbled to share Adam’s story on stage. It’s funny to think back to when you first started coaching me three years ago. The Catalyst Project was a vision and you really helped me bring it to reality. Bringing the Hero’s Journey out in others is really what it’s all about. And, there is no better teacher than you and the LYL community on that very thing! Thanks for all you do! Great to catch up this weekend.

I also feel that it’s important to not stress yourself out about all the things you’re doing “wrong” or all the things you “should” be doing, but aren’t.

One small step at a time, one tiny action per day, done consistently to the point of forming a habit is incredibly powerful and will permeate into all areas of your life. Connecting with others and helping them achieve the same is the ultimate multiplier.

Scott, thanks for the great summary. In fact, it was so rigorously detailed that once I saw how many times it had been retweeted, I felt free to write my own reflections without detailing who said what. Kudos for mentioning Scott Berkun’s pronouncement on luck. I was the one on the floor who shouted “Finally!”

Scott,
All I can say is WOW. I so admire your passion and dedication to your community. As someone who is trying to build something special with my own readers, I really look up to you and all you’ve done.

beth

” Be yourself” is what I keep in mind each day. Very inspiring post! Thank you so much. As I read more about people really doing what they are meant to on their highest level, it makes me believe I can as well. Thank you Thank you!

Oh man, it was my first WDS and was such a experience – finally had the chance to meet you there! (I’m the mexican guy, remember? :))

I can also sum the conference with “Take Imperfect Action”, that was so to the point and what’s happening the WDS community. Everybody that I met that the fear of starting something, so that’s the push we need:

Take. Imperfect. Action. Now

The quotes, the stories, the new friends, the portland experience, the surprises, the parties, the impact.

Awesome recap Scott! BIG THANK YOU for putting all this amazing stuff together and for the shout out. What an amazing weekend indeed. For the europeans reading these lines, I have to say that it was definitely worth to flight across the ocean to meet all the WDS and LOYP crowd. It really felt like the family of inspiring personalities I always wanted to be part of.
I am bringing back to Germany awesome memories, incredible touching stories of other attendees, and a huge motivational push for continuing working day-by-day on my next new projects! “Take imperfect action.” is pure wisdom.
And indeed, I did put in practise the very valuable 3-second-rule that has never let me down 😀
Keep it up Scott!
Cheers,

Shaun

I don’t know what this WDS business is, but I stumbled upon LYL from a Google search. I have to say I was struck by how much these pithy lessons and takeaways resonated with me, especially right now, when I’m trying to find the motivation to take action to jump start my career.

I’m always worried about whether the action I’m taking is the right decision or the wrong one, but I realize that it is up to me to turn whichever action I’ve taken into the right decision by my subsequent behavior.

Let me try my hand at this pithy lesson thing: if you make the most of every action you take, they will all be perfect.

Mattew

Thank you so much for your action Scott ! You are a true inspiration to all of us newly awakening folks in search for a meaningful existence. I am a recently graduated engineer who only realises now that I want to spend my life healing people ! Following my grandpa’s tracks, instead of working for a big car’s company and making money overproducing nonsense goods !
I just would like to post a great inspirational song that I used to watch a lot during the hard times : Wear Sunscreen, from Baz Luhrmann :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI
Keep up with your fight Scott ! We need it.

What a great post with some awesome little nuggets of wisdom. I’ve been thinking a lot about being imperfect and making mistakes and just getting out there and trying… so this post really resonated with me this morning.

Especially this: “Set the goal before you have the skills to finish it.”

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